Metro News & Reviews

Silver Line now running to San Pedro

This one is by request of many riders: Metro’s popular Silver Line will soon be extended to San Pedro and will replace the existing 450 Line.

Here’s how it will work:

•During rush hours on weekdays, the new Silver Line Express 950X will serve San Pedro and will make the same limited stops along the 110 freeway as the 450 and will run every 20 minutes to/from San Pedro and every 10 minutes to/from Harbor Gateway Transit Center. Please see the top map.

•Outside of rush hour on weekdays, the Silver Line will run every 30 minutes to/from San Pedro, making all the stops along the way. On weekends, the Silver Line will run every 40 minutes to/from San Pedro. Please see the second map. Service between Harbor Gateway, downtown L.A. and El Monte Station will remain at current frequencies.

Photo by Steve Hymon/Metro.

•Metro estimates it will take about an hour to travel between downtown L.A. and San Pedro during the rush hours on the Silver Line Express 950X.

•If coming or going to San Pedro or other stations south of Harbor Gateway Transit Center, there will no longer be any need to transfer to another bus at Harbor Gateway Transit Center.

•Once in downtown Los Angeles, the Silver Line and Silver Line Express will continue to make all current stops and then continue to El Monte Station via the ExpressLanes on the 10 freeway.

Too bad Metro did a really poor job of promoting the extension. Lets see, only a small percentage of riders and residents know about the extension. Second, no commencement, or small celebration of the extension?? why? On top of that, many timetables do not show the silver line. Poor!

Well they had a press conference the other day where Eric Garcetti and Mark Ridley-Thomas showed up to do a “ribbon cutting”. The new bus/rail system map (the big one that shows all lines) does show the 910/950X go to San Pedro, and even highlights all of the stops made on Pacific (which are too many for a BRT route – stops every quarter to third of a mile are excessive). I DON’T want this on the “Go Metro” rail/BRT map, because the Silver Line south of Harbor Gateway has no BRT features (like HOV lanes) nor does it operate like any other line. Waiting 40 minutes for a bus on a Saturday is not frequent service.

The Silver Line is convenient for me personally and i’m sure that the people in San Pedro will enjoy it to get from point a to point b.. Catalina isn’t just a street in K-Town anymore. You might actually be able to take a snorkel trip from K-town if you time it right.

My complaints about the Silver Line, and any freeway bus is that the ride is extremely uncomfortable and bumpy. I almost feel like i’m in an A320 just before it lifts off. The SilverLine just never gives me that “okay were off the ground part” .I know this isn’t a charter ride, and we are all only on this bus for an hour maximum, but could there be a better version with better suspension and soundproofing. The 439 used to have pretty nice “semi-charter” type buses that made that freeway commute worth it, and also my extra 50-75 upcharge.

“i’m sure that the people in San Pedro will enjoy it to get from point a to point b”

This assumption is based on expecting people’s point A and point B is same as yours (long distance). People’s point A to B differ from person to person and that can also be a relatively short distance as well.

A person living in San Pedro who works in Wilmington or Torrance is not going to pay $2.50 one way just to ride the Silver Line for a short trip to PCH or Carson.

After the first day, one Silver Line operator left a couple of us at the Harbor Freeway stop, the 950X behind that operator drove right passed the Harbor Freeway stop, and the third bus showed up almost 10 minutes late. We shouldn’t have to wait fifteen minutes for a bus to arrive on an established route. If Metro is looking to improve service, they should start with teaching the operators, supervisors, and managers about proper customer service and the importance of understanding a route.

I ask because for starters, this is nowhere near an “X” Line. Second, why is it that not even all 950X buses go all the way to San Pedro??

Finally, unless Metro pulls all the stops between Union Station and El Monte, as well as no stops between 7th/Metro to Harbor Fwy station, the 950X appears to be more of duplicate rather than a complementary line of the 910. As I said, there is nothing “X” about this line at this point. Just 2 bus lines with one heck of a confusing timetable.

Dave, I agree with you 100 percent. I was a rider of the 450 for the past 3 years and part of the appeal was that it didn’t stop on the 110 after it passed the Harbor Freeway/Green Line Station until it exited the freeway. And, it didn’t stop until 8th & Figueroa Street. The 950X doesn’t stop on the 110 past the Harbor Freeway/Green Line Station; however, it makes every stop that the 910 Silver Line makes on Figueroa Street. This doesn’t make sense. Time saved by not stopping on the freeway is lost when it stops at all of the Figueroa Street stops.

I also agree with other commentators that this was poorly communicated to bus riders. I came to the conclusion that most of the regular 450 riders were aware of these changes. (We tend to share information with each other and there were a lot of conversations re this change. Some even attended the public meetings.) Silver Line passengers didn’t appear to be as aware. For example, several people boarded the 950X in downtown and assumed that the driver would stop on the 110 Freeway before it arrived at the Green Line/Harbor Freeway station. One rider stated, “all I saw was schedule changes.” There was also a lot of yelling at the bus driver and confusion re where the bus was going to stop and how far South is would travel.

Also, the combined map / timetable makes it very unclear which stops are skipped by the 950 (and is internally inconsistent with how this info is conveyed in the inset map showing Downtown.) Any thoughts?

Further, the time table suggest that the express only saves between 1 and 3 minutes by skipping its stops. Given that this would mean a rider would never be better off waiting for an “express” to come, what’s the point, other than reduced convenience / increased confusion?

I was actually thinking about that the other day. Convert the silver line to rail and in between exposition park and union station combined it with the expo line. From there it could just keep going straight into the new regional connector to union station then to el Monte

I used to ride the 450 from DTLA to SP and back, but had to give it up after it proved excessively unreliable for the return journey in the afternoon. A 2 hour commute would become 3 to 3.5 hours because scheduled buses regularly didn’t show. I sure hope this time Metro is more dedicated to making sure the service reliable.

This change has made me late to work twice this week. from DTLA to Rosecrans. And what used to be a half hour going back home from Rosecrans to 7th and Figueroa is now taking me 45minutes. I run the chances of missing my train with this new schedule. Please re-consider adding more silver buses during peak times.

Where are the official route changes? There are are number of 950X buses that leave Harbor Gateway going north in the morning that end at 7th and Fig. As I read the map above, a 950X goes all the way to El Monte. Please update us. I asked the Metro person standing at the Harbor Gateway this morning and she didn’t know. She did check with one 950X driver and he confirmed that his last stop was 7th and Fig. Please let us know!!